Appendix A
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How many schools or sites (total and of each type) provided meals through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), Seamless Summer Option (SSO), Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), or Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) during the COVID-19-relevant months of fiscal year 2020 (March through September 2020)? What percentage of schools or sites provided each meal type (lunch, breakfast, supper, snack/supplement) during these months?
How many meals (total and of each type) were served through NSLP, SBP, SSO, SFSP, or CACFP from March through September 2020? What percentage of meals served during these months were provided through each school or site type?
What processes did SAs and local program operators use to select and establish Child Nutrition (CN) meal sites during the March through September 2020 COVID-19 waiver period?
What proportion of SSO and SFSP sites were closed-enrolled from March through September 2020? How did closed-enrolled sites provide meals (i.e., what meal delivery methods did they use and how did they identify the enrolled students)?
From March through September 2020, to what extent did SAs’ local program operators that provided meals use each COVID-19 CN waiver (Table A.1)? In which programs, and by which types of providers, was each COVID-19 CN waiver used?
From March through September 2020, to what extent did SAs’ local program operators need assistance using each COVID-19 CN waiver, and did SAs provide technical assistance to help program operators comply with meal pattern and area eligibility requirements prior to use of these waivers?
From March through September 2020, how and why was each COVID-19 CN waiver used by SAs and local program operators?
In what ways did each COVID-19 CN waiver improve services to children from March through September 2020?
In SAs that used the Area Eligibility SFSP/SSO waiver from March through September 2020, how were new meal sites selected to serve children who were previously eligible or newly eligible for program benefits due to the economic impacts of COVID-19?
In SAs that used the Nationwide Parent/Guardian Pick-up waiver from March through September 2020, what plans were taken to ensure that meals were distributed only to parents or guardians of eligible children and that duplicate meals were not distributed to any child?
In SAs that used the Nationwide Meal Pattern waiver from March through September 2020, when and where was this waiver in effect and for what food components?
What major financial challenges did States and local program operators experience with providing alternate meal service from March through September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic? What types of meal service were most costly?
What major operational challenges did States and local program operators experience with providing alternate meal service from March through September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
How did States overcome challenges with implementing or using the COVID-19 CN waivers from March through September 2020? Which challenges were they unable to overcome?
What were the most effective methods for providing meals to children during the COVID-19 relevant months of March through September 2020?
What were the best practices for site monitoring during the March through September 2020 COVID waiver period?
What was the overall combined impact of the COVID-19 CN waivers used from March through September 2020 on children?
What COVID-19 CN waivers were not used during the March through September 2020 COVID waiver period and why?
Table A.1. COVID-19 CN waivers approved under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (P.L. 116-127)1
1 The burden for CN waivers is currently approved under OMB control numbers 0584-0280, 7 CFR Part 225 Summer Food Service Program, expiration date 12/31/2022; 0584-0012, School Breakfast Program, expiration date 4/30/2022; and 0584-0006, 7 CFR Part 210 National School Lunch Program, expiration date 7/31/2023. CN anticipates that they can process the waivers within the approved burden. Should it require more hours, CN will revise the relevant information collection requests to include the COVID waivers on an ongoing basis.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | MATHEMATICA |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-28 |